- Kit cars purchased online through companies such as Unique Custom Cruisers provide a way to own a shiny new sports car for a fraction of the cost. Replicars are especially cost effective as the price of antiques in mint condition often is prohibitive. A kit to make a 1950 Ford runs about $3,500 and includes the fiberglass hood and panels, fenders, trunk lid, tail light bucket and all the hinges and clips. A kit car comes with assembly instruction both written and on video. Kit car suppliers also sell accessories such as tail pipes, headlights and turn signal kits to make the car as authentic as possible.
- Classic kit car builders have formed a number of social networks and meet each other online through chats and in person at meets and car shows. Find fellow builders through publications like Kit Car Magazine. Bump Stop is a website that provides information about car shows and offers members a place to trade and sell merchandise. The chat rooms and forums give kit car hobbyists a place to share stories, ask questions and review products.
- Go to websites such as McSorley to find computer aided design (CAD) software for building your own sports car. McSorley offers downloads of a roadster that resembles the Lotus Seven. With the basic design, a sports car builder can add and change of the schematics to personalize the drawings before beginning to build the car. Get lists of necessary parts and follow other Lotus builders through chat rooms and forums that are supporting the burgeoning field of personal Lotus owners.
- Work with a manufacturer willing to provide customers with a portal into which they can build their own sports car and have the parts delivered over time. Mini USA allows customers to go online and create a custom Mini. Choose from a hardtop or convertible. Over a period of about six weeks, various parts are shipped to the home builders along with the color paint chosen and all the pieces necessary to put together the car by hand. If you prefer, you can create the vehicle of your choice online and Mini will put together the custom design on the assembly line.
- Look for opportunities online to participate in designing new car lines over the Internet for established carmakers. British car maker Caterham runs an online contest, called Project Splitwheel, for car-building enthusiasts that it will use to produce a sports car in 2011. The focus of the contest is to create an environmentally friendly automobile that uses green products in every phase of development.
